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Chapter 6
Conclusion and Future Directions
6.1 Conclusion
In the 40 year history of electrophysiological investigations into the retina, much has been
learned about photoreceptor physiology. For example, it is likely that we have a more de-
tailed understanding of the complex molecular pathway underlying the photocurrent than
any other molecular transduction pathway. The tools available to study retinal electrophys-
iology today are fundamentally the same as the tools that were available since the invention
of the patch clamp technique 30 years ago. The biggest change from then to today has been
in our accumulation of knowledge about how the retina works, and the addition of faster,
and cheaper computers for easier data analysis. In particular, having enough digital storage
capacity to make all of the data points an experimenter has collected online available for
online analysis is very convenient. As a result, the studies of photoreceptor electrophysiol-
ogy in this thesis use the currently available tools to build on what is already known about
photoreceptor function.
While studies of ∕⅛ had already been done in rod and cone photoreceptors, our work
analyzed their properties in a controlled way to show that these currents are similar in sala-
mander rods and cones. Combining these patch clamp results with western blot and im-
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